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Essay / Escape through death in Madame Bovary and Like Water...
Death is inevitable and inexperienced, but it is always present as an escape from the undesirable tone of life whose goals are not achieved, the unfulfilled desires and unfulfilled situations. Using death as a resolution to the protagonist's problems, the authors, Gustave Flaubert and Laura Esquivel, represent the suffering and illness of the female characters, in their works Madame Bovary and Like Water For Chocolate, respectively, leading to their tragic end, death. Addressing the theme of feminism, the writers simultaneously emphasize the trend of romanticism of the time, which forced the characters to rebel against the restrictions formed by society and social reforms. From the beginning of the novel, we see that Emma Bovary often used the strategy of “escape” to excuse herself from the daily routine that she had and which she perceived as confinement. And, reading "Like Water to Chocolate", we notice that Tita wanted to escape from her controlled life, which could practically only happen if mom Elena realized the importance of marriage and its values, which was not possible given the nature of mother Elena. Tita never explicitly wanted Mama Elena to die, but her death was the only way out to her world of happiness, romance, and freedom. Therefore, readers see the importance of death in Tita's life, leading her to freedom. Flaubert shows repeated images of Emma trying to free herself from the rubbish of life by reading novels, dreaming when she was younger, moving from one city to another, and fantasizing as she gets older. On the other side, Esqivel shows the controlled and restricted life of Tita since her childhood by Mama Elena, until ...... middle of paper ...... leads to the freedom of the characters. Flaubert brings readers his modern ideas on the problems faced by women during this time. The characters turn out to be so frustrated, saturated and tired of their routine that they find death much lighter and easier than what they have. But the writers very skillfully leave it to the readers to decide the characters' faults and actions. They basically don't end the novel with the death of the male and female protagonist, but actually open up an idea that tries to create in the readers' minds that what Emma and Tita did was right or wrong. They do not pass judgment on any character throughout the novel and have kept an equal balance on the negative and positive aspects of the characters. He welcomed different thoughts and perspectives at the end of the novel to create an effect or bring about change..